Smithy's Arc
by Kingston
Summary: The Strawhats always have room for one more.


_Here goes..._

Kingston Presents:

**Desperatly Seeking Destiny**

PROLOGUE

I'd been kicked out. Lazy as I was, I didn't find the news all that surprising. But the real genius was that had been my plan all along. Three straight months of shitty work and lost orders, it's no wonder this didn't happen to me sooner. The Big Man had a new apprentice, a very promising new apprentice that didn't have flaws like mine. Sure this boy-apprentice could snore loud enough to rattle the rafters and create a certain grudge with our neighbors, but he had good money sense—something I'd been told I'm in dire need of.

The Big Man said all the talent in the world couldn't keep me in his shop if I couldn't hold onto ten Beris longer than ten minutes. I could hardly see the problem with it. Money's there to be spent, what's the use of it otherwise? And if it was that big of a problem he shouldn't leave all those mail order magazines lying around. But no matter this little misunderstanding, I had made him down right pissed and it took all I was worth not to grin in triumph. He was like metal under my hammer.

I was surprised he didn't notice my lack of arguing as any normal person might object to being thrown out of their home. My goal had been to get out of the shop and I wasn't going to mess that up with even the slightest objection to the words he used to describe my work. No matter how much my lip curled with restrained protests, I didn't say a word.

Standing outside the shop I could see over the rows of roofs tall ship masts in the harbor tilt at odd angles in time with the waves. The tall towers of wood and rope swung back and forth at a stuttered pace with all sorts of sea birds taking residence among the awkward angles associated with a ship. A white seabird cried over my head before gliding through town and carefully landing on a waving crows nest. I was bound for the ocean. Forget fickle clients and threatening collectors, I wasn't sticking around for their benefit. And despite my craft calling for a shop and stable land, I was prepared to leave it behind. I was out looking for something new. If the mood for smithing hit me I might dock on land, but it wasn't likely to happen often. Today in this world, ones fortune was found at sea. My lips curled for a much more appropriate reason, I was going to make a name for myself.

I skipped down the steps of the front door and nonchalantly walked past the open work shop avoiding eye contact with the new apprentice. He stopped the falling hammer he'd been holding and lifted his eye protection to watch me leave. With a single nudge he could have ruined my plans. The Big Man had kicked me out when he was drunk last night, and if the new apprentice woke him up now he would realize his mistake and drag me back and chain me to the anvil with a hammer in hand. But the apprentice just watched me leave and the Big Man let off a long snore and dropped his empty gin bottle. I guess the boy realized that with me out of the way he was number one apprentice now.

A bounce entered my step once I was past the shop and the saw dust from the floors had fallen off my boots. Now I could really be lazy! No orders to fill, no all nighters to finish what the Big Man had forgotten about. It was all that new apprentices' responsibility now. I wonder if he even knew the Big Man didn't know the first thing about smithing. I grinned jogging down to the Warf. It was that boy's hell now; I was free of that shit.

Women marched past me balancing a days worth of shopping in tall baskets atop their heads and looked forward ignoring my gaze. I'd heard this odd way of carry ones things was adopted from the very natives the towns makers had kicked out to make room for a harbor town. No one taught me how to do that cool trick so I watched amazed as a woman waggled past me perfectly balanced with loads of crap stacked in her basket. I couldn't understand why no one would meet my stare. I was starving for human interaction between someone other than the Big Man or his snoring apprentice. I was always kept in the shop, and if someone came by the shop I was told to go in the house and clean some shit.

Well, fuck that now. I was going to talk to someone. I was going to have an adventure. I grinned at the next lady and she gave me a weird look before smiling awkwardly and hurrying past so not to speak with me. At least she had noticed my existence. I grinned wider when the bustle of the market buzzed around the next bend. I'd always wanted to go to the market, and despite living in this town for almost all of my life this would be the first time I stepped foot out into the public. No more skirting through the allies, no more late night travels; I would live however I saw fit. My life was to my choosing for the very first time. There was nothing I could do about the ridiculous grin on my face.

My boots made a pleasant clopping noise as I turned onto the cobblestone main street. Almost instantly the pressure of too many people talking at once weighed on my ears and I flinched with the new experience. I never knew so many people could actually gather together in one place, and the mere mass of them made me stop in my tracks. What the hell had I been missing out on?

I'm sure all of the strange looks were because of my insane grin. Very slowly, I began my first walk down Main Street during rush hour. The last time I was on Main Street it was three in the morning and I was with the Big Man to pick up our shipment of steel. The only thing around that time was a stray cat and a drunken dirty man past out on the docks. Coming during the day time was worlds better. People covered nearly every foot of space and children snuck from stand to stand nicking things off the table when the merchants weren't looking. This was the real world; this is how everyone else lived.

"Oi, girl." A gruff voice growled behind me. "Yer blocking traffic, darling." I supposed I couldn't argue since I was barely moving what with my utter amazement with town life. In comparison to me the rest of the street was moving at lightning speed. When I had stepped to the side of the road in order to remove myself from the bustle I finally caught a view of the impatient walker behind me, or rather the large band of impatient walkers. It was at that moment that I realized how quiet the street had become. Not two seconds ago it was nearly deafening with noise, and now you could have heard a pin drop. Ever so slowly the rest of the street's people stepped to the side in order to allow the band of people to pass by unopposed.

There was something odd about this group. I just couldn't put my finger on it. It was too late once I realized I was staring. "Oi, girl!" He said choosing to ignore the nice little path the townspeople had made for him and his group. "What are ya looking at? Hmm?" He inquired taking a step closer to me. I still couldn't quite place him.

"Wait, wait!" Some man near by stepped next to me and shuffled me behind him. "She's just a girl she doesn't know any better." This new guy assured as he refused to meet the eyes of the gruff man. "I apologize—"

"Pirates!" I slapped my leg and grinned. "That's it. You're all _pirates_. Right?" I smiled. I finally figured it out. The dirty clothes, the hard faces; I knew I'd seen something like them before…but when had I ever met pirates? As far back as I could remember I'd always been in the shop. I was startled out of my thinking when the gruff man suddenly exploded into laughter. He must have been the captain because of his big hat and position at the head of the group.

"Well, aren't ya a bright one!" He laughed again and the rest of his group immediately followed suit. He was definitely the captain with that kind of reaction from the rest of the pirates. I'd have to say there were ten other pirates with the captain. Only one especially had a scary look on his face, the others could easily pass as normal citizens if they only cleaned up a bit.

"Really," The man holding me behind him said to the captain. "She's obviously still a child so please don't—oof!" I watched curiously amazed as the man was literally lifted off the ground and thrown out of my sight. Wow.

"Whoa." I said impressed. The pirate at the captain's right was amazing. He looked like a normal enough pirate, but he had just tossed a grown man like he was a crumpled piece of paper.

"Aren't ya scared, girl?" The captain asked. I wasn't sure what he was doing because I was still on my tippy toes trying to see where the thrown man had ended up. That had been so cool.

"No, sir." I said offhandedly still searching for the nice man. I doubted I would ever see him again, but the slight chance that I would find where he'd fallen was exciting enough to occupy my eleven year old mind. "You can't be scared when you're looking for destiny." The startling roar of laughter made me give up my search and stare at the captain happily bemused. The crew around the captain all had the same grin, and that was my first clue that something was up.

"Darlin', how'd you like to join me crew?" The captain suddenly asked cutting his laughter short and bending down to my level. The matching grin of the crew grew wider.

"Yours?" I asked. A ticket off this island convinced me that I should fully listen to what this captain had to say. My peek in interest caught the captain's eye and his smile grew to mirror the crew's.

"You need only shake hands with Red Jackson and take a step aboard me ship, Destiny." My eyes popped in amazement before I burst out laughing. Now I knew why the captain had been laughing before when I said I wasn't scared. I didn't need to look very far, Destiny had found me first. The captain grinned putting out his hand. I took a second to compose myself, and with an identical grin I took Captain Red Jackson's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Quite a handshake, girl." I just smiled.

"Captain got me nearly the same way." The Pirate to Captain's right said clapping my shoulder. "Welcome abaord, Smithy." I tried to ask him how he knew I was a smith, but he just smiled and nudged me to follow Captain.

That day six years ago I became a pirate. Everything after that day is because of Captain Jackson taking the time to chat with a little girl in a boring harbor town. Latter he told me it was my smile that made him stop. He said I didn't match that town; that I had a love for the sea clear in my eyes. Unfortunately, the next time I stumble across Captain Jackson I just might have to slit his throat, or break his legs at the very least. I learned a lot aboard the Destiny, but no amount of good memories can make up for what Captain did to me in the end. He better pray his ship never shares the same sea as me for the rest of his pirating life.

_So?_

_-Kingsy_


End file.
